The role of ZBED6 in transcriptional regulation studied by transcriptome  analysis after RNAi in mouse myoblasts

• ZBED6 is a recently discovered transcription factor that has evolved from a domesticated DNA transposon and is unique to placental mammals. Here we further characterize the functional significance of ZBED6 based on transcriptome analysis of mouse myoblasts after Zbed6-silencing. ZBED6 appears as an important transcriptional regulator since differential expression of more than 700 genes was observed after Zbed6-silencing. The most significantly enriched GO term was muscle protein and contractile fiber, which is consistent with increased myotube formation. Twenty small nucleolar RNAs showed differential expression and all increased in expression after Zbed6-silencing. This is particularly interesting because ZBED6 localization is strongly enriched in the nucleolus. There was an overrepresentation of genes with ZBED6 binding sites among the differentially expressed genes after silencing, suggesting that ZBED6 acts as a transcriptional regulator at many loci. Many genes showed significant down-regulation after Zbed6-silencing, which begs the question of whether ZBED6 acts as an activator at some of these loci or if the decreased mRNA levels of these genes all represent secondary effects. The co-localization of histone marks and ZBED6 binding sites and the effect of ZBED6-silencing on distribution of histone marks was evaluated by ChIP-seq. There was a strong association between ZBED6 binding sites and the H3K4me3, H3K4me2 and H3K27ac modifications, which are usually found at active promoters, but no association with the repressive marks H3K27me3. We propose that ZBED6 preferentially binds to active promoters and modulates transcriptional activity by a novel mechanism rather than by recruiting repressive histone modifications.  

Subject headings

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Biologi -- Biokemi och molekylärbiologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Biological Sciences -- Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Transcriptome analysis

RNAi

Biologi med inriktning mot molekylär cellbiologi

Biology with specialization in Molecular Cell Biology

Publication and Content Type

vet (subject category)

for (subject category)